These Christmas Candy Recipes Will Help You Sweeten the Season (2024)

FAQs

What is the importance of candy in Christmas? ›

Candy plays an essential role in the festive weeks between Thanksgiving and the New Year, making Christmas the third biggest holiday for candy sales. Candy canes, chocolate Santas, Hershey Kisses and ribbon candy all signify winter celebrations and add a sweet touch to holiday parties.

A candy cane is a cane-shaped stick candy often associated with Christmastide, as well as Saint Nicholas Day. It is traditionally white with red stripes and flavored with peppermint, but the canes also come in a variety of other flavors and colors.

Luckily, the origins of the candy cane are slightly more documented than some other holiday traditions. Multiple books have been written on the subject and seem to agree on a common possible explanation: that the candy cane was first invented as an attempt to keep children quiet during the Christmas church service.

According to America's Favorite Christmas Candy by State Report, a comprehensive study by research firm HubScore that delved into a survey of the top 20 favorite Christmas candies, Kit Kat ranked top in 13 states followed by a tie between Skittles and candy canes, both ranked top in six states.

Candy canes are one of the oldest Christmas candies, first appearing in the 17th century in Europe. They were originally straight white sticks of sugar that were meant to symbolize shepherd's crooks.

Did you know that candies release dopamine? It happens in the nucleus accumbens, which is the part of your brain linked to reward, novelty, and motivation. Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter that plays a key role in controlling emotional responses.

One theory behind the tradition of oranges in the stocking stems from the generosity of Saint Nicholas (also known as Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Kris Kringle and Old Saint Nick), who was the son of a wealthy merchant and later in life a bishop.

This hard candy was shaped so it would resemble a “J” for Jesus or, turned upside down, a shepherd's staff. He made it white to represent the purity of Christ.

What does the red and white mean on a candy cane? ›

In 1847, he made a candy to symbolize Christ. The cane's "J" shape stands for Jesus; when turned upside-down, it becomes a shepherd's staff. The white color signifies purity; the red represents Christ's blood, shed for the world's sins, and three red stripes symbolize the trinity.

Candy canes were originally solid white, but during the turn of the 20th century stripes started to appear. Prior to the late 19th century, Christmas cards of that period show nothing but plain white candy. Some believe the stripes came from the candy maker Bob McCormack in the 1920s.

In 1976, Mars eliminated red-colored M&M's because of health concerns over the dye amaranth (FD&C Red #2), which was a suspected carcinogen, and replaced them with orange M&M's. This was done despite the fact that M&M's did not contain the dye; the action was purely to satisfy worried consumers.

What is the oldest candy still in production? The chocolate cream bar created by Joseph Fry in 1866 is the oldest candy bar in the world. Although Fry was the first to start pressing chocolate into bar molds in 1847,the chocolate creame was the first mass produced and widely available candy bar.

Candy is the excellent Christmas gift for people that have whatever since no person can have every type of sweet, and also no one can have way too much sweet.

Candy has been a classic Christmas gift for a long time, but it often slips people's minds. Give them a gift they want but also aren't expecting!

It wasn't until the end of the 19th century and industrialisation that it became more widely available. It was still considered to be a sophisticated delicacy, however, and so people exchanged it on big occasions, such as a Christmas gift.